1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications, and more specifically to an operational support system (OSS) which may be used by a provider of high bandwidth connections to users at locations such as homes and offices.
2. Related Art
Service providers often provide high bandwidth connections to users. Examples of such service providers include incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) such as PacBell of California, competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) such as Covad Communications Group, Inc. (the assignee of the subject patent application). The ILECs and CLECs are commonly referred to as LECs in the present application.
Efficient and effective delivery of high bandwidth connection services often requires coordination of several tasks and use of related information. The tasks may be performed in several xe2x80x98stagesxe2x80x99 of the service delivery process. For example, in an initial set-up stage, a service provider may need to setup several types of equipment before being able to deliver service.
The status of the tasks in the set-up stage may impact tasks in other stages as well. For example, a service provider may not be able to accept orders for the service in an area unless service is already available in the area or until there is an indication of expected date of availability of the service in the area.
Furthermore, the interface to accept such orders may need to be simple and user-friendly. The expectations of the requester of the service may need to be quickly and/or accurately set. Once an order is received, the order may also need to be processed efficiently, at least to minimize the associated overhead for a service provider.
The present invention relates to processing orders for digital subscriber loop (DSL) based services specifying high bandwidth connections. In accordance with the present invention, an operation support system (OSS) pre-qualifies a user location for the service while taking into consideration any resources required exclusively for providing the services to the user location. Pre-qualification generally refers to making a preliminary determination of the feasibility of providing the requested service.
A port on a digital subscribe loop access multiplexor (DSLAM) is an example of a resource used exclusively for the user location. The ports together may be viewed as a type of it resource, and each port may be viewed as an instance of the resource type. The operational support system may determine if a user location requires an instance of a resource type exclusively, and reserves one of the instances of the resource type for the user location. Thus, operational support system may ensure the availability of such resources for fulfilling the service order upon pre-qualification.
The results of pre-qualification may be immediately made available to the requestor so that the requestor knows that the service is available at least with some level of high probability. The results may be made available, for example, on a web page if a requestor is entering an order on web pages or via email if the user wishes email notification.
In addition, the operational support system may assign and reserve a DSLAM port capable of providing the services requested for a user location. As is well known in the relevant arts, if the length of the local loop exceeds approximately 14,000 feet, only IDSL may be an option, in which case a maximum bandwidth of 144 Kbps may be provided. For lesser distances and with an end-to-end metallic local loop, ADSL may be a possibility, which supports much higher bandwidth.
Actual availability of the service may be determined later accurately. The results of pre-qualification may be found to be in error later. The resolution in such situations may require manual intervention. However, requestor satisfaction may be enhanced due to the early indication of availability of service, at least when the pre-qualification results are accurate.
In one embodiment, the requestor may provide data identifying a user location (at which the service is to be provided), and the desired service (e.g., speed). The operational support system may receive the data and determine whether the desired services cannot be provided either due to technological limitations (local loop length limitations, etc.) or due to business considerations (e.g., it may not be desirable to provide high bandwidth connections between distant locations as the performance throughput for other users may be impacted). The operational support system further determines the availability of the resources (e.g., DSLAM ports) used exclusively for the services specified in the received order.
The operational support system may reserve any such resources for the user location in the service order, and then communicate the results of the pre-qualification to the requestor. However, one problem with such a system is that the requestor may not be clear on what service options are available, and may thus select a sub-optimal service.
Accordingly, in an alternative embodiment, a requestor first provides data identifying the user location. The operational support system may examine the data to determine all the possible services for that user location. The requestor may be provided the ability to select from among the determined possible services. As a result, the requestor may make an informed choice from the available services. Operational support system may reserve the resources required exclusively for the user location, for example, immediately after receiving the choice from the requestor.
Therefore, the present invention may be used by service providers to first provide a preliminary indication of the possibility of providing a desired service, and then later determine actual feasibility of providing the service.
The present invention may enhance satisfaction of a requestor as the requestor knows quickly whether the desired services are feasible from a specific DSL service provider.
The present invention enhances the probability of fulfilling a service order according to the pre-qualification as the resources (e.g., DSLAM port) used exclusively for a user location are reserved for the user location.
The present invention is useful for an ISP (Internet service provider) as the end users (e.g., from home) accessing a target network provided by the ISP may use forms provided on a web server to request the high bandwidth connections to the target network.
The present invention enables a requestor to select an optimal service type by first indicating all the feasible services which may be provided to a user location and having the requestor select from among the feasible services.
Further features and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.